Week 7 - A week in Interzone

After Bucky left, it seemed like my trip was starting to wind down a bit. I was tired and not that interested in moving around and seeing the major sites, like Tikal, in Guatemala. I decided to go to the middle of nowhere for a few days of complete relaxation amidst the gorgeous mountains of central Guate.


Christmas, brought to you by beer

I headed for a town called Lanquin (for some reason it took me forever to stop calling it Languin), which is about an 1 1/2 hours of the most beautiful drive outside of Coban. In Lanquin, there is an "eco-lodge" called El Retiro. It is a collection of thatched roof huts set on the banks of a cold, fast mountain stream. Its got a bar/restaurant, a really cool wood-fired sauna made out of beer bottles, and a decidedly Bob Marley-centric sound track. It attracts a decidedly international set of folks who are mostly looking for a few days of rest after many days on the road. Some find it such a nice spot that they end up staying for 3 months or longer and working at the lodge for a bit of money and free booze. I can understand why.



I spent the first couple of days doing pretty much nothing. I read, played cards, drank a bit, took a sauna, etc. We'd all sit in the bar all evening listening to reggae, playing cards, talking and getting drunk. Anyone who has hung out on the Irving St. porch knows that this felt just like home.


My big exursion on the first couple of days was to the Lanquin Caves, which is a huge cave system just outside of town. It is notorious for its bat population. In fact, the tour was probably one of the more disgusting things that I have done. The whole place is covered in bat shit. So you are hiking around in the cave, slipping on and pulling yourself up on rocks covered in guano. Any clothes I wore that day should probably be burned. Inside there are rock formations and an altar that is still used by the local mayan people for religious rites. At 6 pm you head for the entrance to the cave, turn out all the lights and sit very still. Then you start hearing chirps and feeling the woosh of wings going by your head as the bats fly out for their nocturnal feeding. Then you just start taking pictures hoping to get a good shot of a bat or two flying. I must have taken about 60 just to get a couple of decent shots.



My last full day in Lanquin, I took a (slightly hungover) tour to Semuc Champey, which is a set of pools formed where the Cohoban River flows underground for a while. Where the river goes underground it is a ragin rapid, but on the surface the pools are calm and crystal clear. We hiked up to a mirador (lookout) and then swam in the pools over lunch. After lunch, it was into another cave, Maria's Caves. These caves are completely different than the ones in Lanquin. We walked through water that ranged anywhere from waist deep to 2 feet over our heads. Swimming with a candle in one hand and flip flops tied to your feet is not the easiest thing! The whole experience was very eerie. Much of the time you could only see a few feet in front of your face and then you come to a water fall that you have to climb up or one that you have to slide down. A definitely strange place. Of course this entire tour is brought to you by the country of Guatemala where the safety rules are limited, to say the least. To illustrate, I ended the day by jumping off a 60 foot tall bridge without a lifejacket. Very fun.



So, I ended the week much rested and ready to head to Mexico for the last bit of the trip. Drinking mezcal and eating wonderful food with Tere in Oaxaca.

Week 6 - Volcanoes and Kayaks and Buckys, oh my!

Bucky gave me a bit of a surprise a couple of weeks ago when he confirmed that he was planning on coming down to Guatemala for a few days. I rushed to Antigua to see him, well boarded a direct shuttle from Copan to Antigua, at least.

After many weeks here in Central America, I definitely have a new opinion on what is considered an inexpensive hotel. Bucky, of course, doesn´t, much to my benefit. He found a hotel in Antigua that I would be semi-embarrassed to tell other backpackers the price. It was gorgeous though, a big room, with what must be in the top 10 of all Guatemalan bathrooms, including in the presidential palace. Seriously, not only did the shower have actual hot water (not from a little heater attached to the shower head that is waiting to shock you) but it also had a bathtub! You ask people down here if there is a bathtub, they will look at you funny, having never heard of such a thing before. Bucky, if you have a picture, please send it to me or post it in the comments.

We spent a couple of days in Antigua touring around the city and doing some shopping at the local markets. Antigua is a lot like Grenada, Nicaragua, an old colonial capital. The diffference seems to be the amount of money and the number of tourists. It is so much more glitzy, a spanish colonial vegas? The Parque Central is gorgeous and was all lit up for the holiday. The cathedral is a huge structure that has been destroyed by earthquakes and volcanoes several times but always rebuilt around the ruins of the old. Off in the distance you can see the volcanoes that surround, threaten and beautify the city.

The Cathedral

Some of the ruins inside the cathedral


La Lavanderia Publica

Bucky on our rooftop terrace (damn, that was a nice hotel)

We also decided to climb Vulcan Pacaya, an active volcano an hour outside of Antigua. After my horrible experience on Madera in Ometepe, I had a bit of trepidation, but this hike made up for the previous one in spades. We did the afternoon hike, about 2 hours of hiking up a trail and then over a scree field followed by staring at and being singed by lava in the fading light.

Real lava. Real hot.

Other volcanoes over the clouds

Bucky and I near the top.

After a few days in Antigua, it was again time to move. We decided to go to Lago de Atitlan, a few hours away from Antigua by bus. The lake is formed by an ancient and HUGE volcanic crater and is one of the most beautiful places imaginable. Hell, Guatemala is one of the most beautiful places imaginable! Nicaragua has beautiful mountains, jungles and volcanoes, but here it all just seems a bit bigger.

We stayed in San Pedro de Laguna which has an interesting mix of hippie internationalist dropouts and Mayan Jehovah´s witnesses, weird, but it seems to function. This is the kind of town where there is a sign on a bookstore advertising Space Cookies right next to a building with a sign reading Jesus is the Only Way to Life.

We didn´t do a whole lot over the next couple of days, except for try our hands at kayaking the lake. This turned out to be one hell of a disaster. The kayaks we rented were little sit-on-top numbers. Now the lake is usually calm in the morning and then the winds pick up in the afternoon, unfortunately, this was not the case for Bucky and I. We started off ok, but then when we got out a bit from the harbor, the wind picked up and white caps started to appear. Normally, this wouldn´t be too much of a problem, but our little boats were not up to the task. These things were uber-bouyant. They just bounced along the top of the water and anyone who has been in a kayak will tell you that bouncing isn´t so good. We started flipping and once we started it seemed hard to stop. I must have flipped 6 or 7 times! I ended up giving up. Bucky was able to make it shore and sent out a ferry boat to get me in to shore. Ugh, as somewhat of a kayaker at home, I am still embarrassed. As bucky said, we had an interesting perspective of the lake.

Bucky and I went back to Guatemala City on Friday so that he could head back to DC and I could continue the trip. Next I head for Lanquin in the central highlands....

Some Pictures from the Ruins of Copan

After a few days of diving and rain on the british-y islands, it was time to get bback to the real Cerntral America and what a better way to do it than with some Mayan ruins. I took the bus over to Copan Ruinas near the border with Guatemala to see the famed ruins over the weekend. The ruins are of a great Mayan city that flourished from about 400-800 AD. They have been declared a UNESCO World Heritage site and while not as giant as the ruins at Tikal in Guatemala, they do have (apparently) much more detailed carvings.

The day I went was the first nice day I had seen in a week, and while the ruins were interesting and all, it was really most fun to just climb around on old rocks. So here are some pictures.



The Macaws come around every day to the main entrance.


The main temple, used for sacrificing soem virgins ans other fun stuff






A good turtle sculpture






The local sports arena






The most famous carving in Copan and yours truly









The beheading rock

Week 5 - Diving in the Bay Islands

Hightailed for the Honduran border on an early morning bus on a saturday morning. This was no chicken bus though. I decided to go in style for the long ride to the north coast of Honduras, taking a King Quality, 1st class, fancy-pants bus the whole way. Let me tell you, this is the only way to travel. Tons of leg room, reclining seats, horrible movies on the overhead screens (Nicolas Cage should not be allowed to make any more movies)..

I arrived in La Ceiba to find out that this supposedly big party town was shut down for the weekend. My plans of drunken foolishness were foiled for the second time by a central american election. Can't these people learn from our democracy and keep the booze flowing while people vote

So, anyway, since there was no booze and there weren't enough people to go on the rafting trip I wanted to do, I headed straight for the island of Utilla in the morning.

Utilla is a very small Carribean island that basically has 2 things going on, diving and smoking weed. It is mostly english speaking, it was owned by the british for a long time, and has a definite Pirates of the Carribean feel. When we arrived the weather was hot and sunny. Everyone said that the last month had been unusally rainy so this was quite the break. It didn`t. After the first 24 hours the clouds came over the sun, not to be seen again until I left Utilla. But ah well, when you are under the water, the rain doesn´t matter so much and my hotel/dive shop had one of the greatest inventions known to man, hot showers.

Bye Bye, Sun

I started the dive class the first afternoon with some of the funniest, most informative videos ever made. Anyone of you who have done the PADI course, know what I`m talking about. The next day we started actually going in the water. Its a little scary at first doing a silly thing like breathing underwater, but once we got down to the bottom of the bay for the training dive, it seemed to go ok. It was damned cold though. The Carribean doesn`t seem so warm when you are sitting there on the bottom not moving much! The next day was much better, we actually dove on the reef. Over the next few days I did 6 dives, seeing giant crabs, big snappers, tiny little parrot fish, and what i still think was a baby shark. It was pretty damn cool. One of the best things was how much easier it is to see, when the water is clear that is, because water magnifies so much. I could see like real boy! I can´t wait to try it again. Maybe in Mexico over Christmas. I guess I could use another expensive thing to do on vacation

My class consted of 2 D.C. denixen (including a guy who lives in Mt. P!), a british guy and 2 british brothers who are travelling around the world together. 70+ countries in 12 months! Now I get along great with my brothers, but around the world together for a year, I`m not sure I could handle that. I hope Tim and Chris get along for the next 9 months and I hope that they take the time to appreciate all the wonders around them and get to know a few of the places they are visiting. I feel like I appreciated Nicaragua after a month there, but I know that I only scratched the surface.

Obviously, with all of these people learning how to dive, there are many people who are there to teach you and lead the dives. These people prove once again that guides, whether they be for the river or under the sea, are some of the most relaxed people on earth. People who live to do what they want for the right to earn enough money to keep them in beer and an apartment in a beautiful part of the world. Of course with this lifestyle comes certain punishments like when you become a dive master, your finaal initiation is the snorkel test. Basically, while wearing a mask that covers you nose you have to drink rum, coke, chili sauce and beer through a snorkel. Gross, difficult and fun to watch.




OK. Thats it for now. On to the ruins of Copan and meeting Bucky in Guatemala.

Week 3/4 - Las Penitas and Estelli

It was another pretty quiet week form me in Nicaragua. After Leon, I headed for the beach town about 20 km west of the city, Las Penitas. This is a truly beautiful beach, wide, long and with hardly a soul on it. Spent 3 relatively quiet nights there, playing cards with the bartender ( a great way to practice spanish), hanging with the other guests, and lazing on the beach. On Sunday, there was an influx of travellers coming from Leon to spend a gorgeous day at the beach. I ended up playing volleyball and getting a bit drunk with yet another international team of misfits. Suffice it to say, the Nicas cleaned our clock at volleyball.


The volleyball team


Cute kids who sell coconuts, neckalces and other stuff on the beac


Sunset over Las Penitas

After the relaxation of the beach it was time to travel again. Headed back to Leon for one more night of city debauchery and then cought a chicken bus to Estelli. Estelli is a mountain town in the Northern Highlands of Nicaragua. They make cigars and grown some coffee in the surrounding area, but mostly it seems to be a major truck stop on the Pan-American Highway. Its not a pretty city, its one saving grace being a fairly modern cathedral/chruch set on top of the hill.

I had a really big scary moment when i got into my hostel and realized my wallet wasn't in my pocket. I was extremely lucky though because the cab driver gave me his number so that I could call him for late night jaunts to the bars. I called him up, the wallet wasn't in his cab, but he only had one fare after me, going to the local hospital. He took me down there and we found the mother and daughter who were his fare and they had it! Phew!!!!


My hero, Gerrardo

I spent a day and half wandering around with my new friend Josh. Josh is a Brazilian who works for a European NGO coordinating volunteers in Central America. His english was pretty much non-existent, but his spanish was very good and much easier to understand than the local accent. Josh was a great tour guide, taking me to visit a cigar factory and this commune of women who grow trees and then make paper by hand. The paper is beautiful and as you could imagine for a commune in this part of the world, Che Geuverra is depicted often in the final designs on the notepads, journals and cards that they sell. It was great to have someone who knew a bit of the town after having been there for a few weeks and who was extremely patient with my spanish. Thanks Josh!


Making paper....


And cigars

I spent thanksgiving in the Reserva Natural Miraflor just north of Estelli. The park has a cloud forest section, but since I only had 1 night I just did the lower section which is a dry tropical forest in the mountains. I hired a guide and traipsed around the mountains all day, seeing 3 waterfalls, birds flying over a beautiful little river and the view from on top of a mountain. The whole area reminded me of West Virginia. I stayed in a ´cabanita`on a family farm inside the reserve. It was what mom would affectionately call ¨rustic.¨ There was no running water and no electricity, but the bed was comfortable and the family was nice. The ownere, Dora Iglesia, i a very ncie woman who seems very happy in her simple surroundings with her family. She´s a very good cook too. Thanksgiving dinner for me ended up being a tortilla wrapped around cheese and chicken and then fried, yucca, salad and rice and beans (natch==. It was much quieter than the usual waldmann thanksgiving and I missed everyone a lot on the holiday, but at least I was in a lovely spot.


One of the Tres Cascadas


On top of a mountain

Next its onto the Bay Islands in Honduras for diving lessons....

Week 3 - Leon, mas tranquillo

So I didn´t have such a good first impression of Leon what with the ´bombas´and yong men in masks, but apparently Leon has to get back to work on Monday mornings just like the rest of us. The rest of the week ended up being pretty darn quiet. A few bombas, lots of drums and a bunch of studying by your author.

I was in Leon for a second week of spanish class. This one was much better than my first. It actually had structure, learn a concept, do a bunch of exercises, lather, rinse, repeat (always repeat). I think i learned a lot. My spanish is definitely improving, although technically, it still really sucks. Tere wants me to write these blog posts in spanish, but no. 1, i don´t have the vocabulary to do it and no. 2 the keyboard i´m typing this on doesn´t have the spanish letters labeled, so it ain´t gonna happen. Lo siento, Tere!

Leon is another colonial town in the mold of Granada. In fact the 2 cities have been at each ohers throat for hundreds of years fighting for supremacy in the country. Unlike Granada, though, Leon sems to be an actual working city vs. a tourist attraction. Hate to say it, but as a tourist, I kinda missed many of the things in Granada, sidewalk cafes, people who were pretty used to tourists and will chat with you and be very patient with your spanish...etc. Leon felt a little closed off to me. What it did have was some wonderful cultural centers.

This part of the world isn´t known for things like art museums, but Leon has a pretty good one, with art ranging from renniasance religous works to modern peices from Nicaragua artists. It even had a few Picassos. Other sites included many things dedicated to Sandino and the martyrs of the revolution. There are still buildings in central leon that were bombed out during the contra war in the 80s, e.g. there is a hulk of a church that nearly completely destroyed but has been left standing as a reminder to the people.


An image from the Musuem of Heroes and Martyers


A church that was bombed out in the Contra War


Sandion stepping on America

Basically, it was a quiet week and when it ended I was ready to hit the beach to rest my weary mind...

Week 3 - Leon: A rude welcome

Wow, did I ever get a rude welcome to Leon! I left Granada on Sunday taking the minibus to Managua and cataching another to Leon. Little did I know that Sandinista vs. Liberale demonstrations had closed down the main road between the 2 largest cities in Nicaragua. We took an extremely worn out, very bumpy road for twice as long as it should have taken, all with my backpack on my lap. I know, whine whine whine.

I arrive into Leon with a couple of other Americans who I met at the bus stop. They don´t speak any spanish so I get to play translator with taxi drivers and people at the bus stop with my crappy spanish. Always fun and educational! I check into my hostel and these guys go around the block to check into theirs. I´m meeting them for drinks after I dump my stuff. Their place is right around the block so extremely easy and non-threatening, right? Actually, it appeared that the demonstrations that had engulfed the capital had spread to Leon. I make a left off of my street and suddenly their are 10 pickup trucks there all filled with young guys wearing red, some with bandana masks. They were FSLN, Sandinistas. I get a few catacalls of ´Hey gringo, George Bush sucks!´ and the like. Of course, the proper response to such a catcall is ´No shit, try living 3 miles from the guy.´ But, I basically keep my head down, yell an adios and keep going. I turn the corner, accidentally go past the hotel I´m going to and find myself staring at 20 riot police in full gear. I quickly turn around, find the right place, and go in after some playful joshing by the guys watching from the locked door. Luckily, it seems like the dmonstration had pretty much petered out by the time I got there, so no problems really. Just a bit of shock and a few too many ´bombas´ (giant firecrackers) going off. Everyone says that they won´t hurt gringoes. Its not our fight and they know it. Actually, Nicaragua is extremely safe for tourists. I think I did make the news though!

We were sitting there having beers and watching and NFL game on 1 tv, while the other was showing CNN Latina which was covering the demonstrations. Others were concentrating more on that one. Most of the video was from Managua and on the road to Leon where most of the violence occurrred. But suddenly, I hear from the crowd watching the news, ´Es tu! Es tu!´and they are pointing at me. Apparently somebody was filming as I walked through the dwindling protest and cought me moving quickly by. Places you have to go to get on TV!

So the welcome to Leon wasn´t the first impression that I had hoped for, but the week did get better. More on that later.

Week 2 - San Juan Del Sur, Isla de Ometepe and back to Granada

So 1 week in and I´m already off schedule. I was supposed to go Leon right after Granada for more induction into the wilds of the spanish language. Unfortunately (or fortunately) my brain hurt after the week of lessons and I neded a break. So, it was off to the beach with Nick and Helyn for a few days of fun in the sun.

The first long(ish) ride on a chicken bus, really an old school bus, was fine until we got to Rivas which is a major hub in sw nicaragua. As soon as you get off the bus anywhere, you are accosted by the chaotic situation. Vendors selling anything they can to travellers, guys yelling out the destinations of their buses and taxi drivers trying to get you to use their services instead of the buses. My spanish isn´t really good enough to enter that situation cold.  We did end up taking a taxi a taxi for the 40 minute ride from Rivas to San Juan Del Sur, for all of $5 per person. Take that DC cab drivers!

SJDS is relatively small beach town on the Pacific coast. Its temporary home to a multitude of surfers from everywhere. I guess it must be good surfing because there are a hell of a lot them there. Like any surfer/beach town it has a very relaxed vibe. There´s a beach right in town, but it is not such a good one for swimming or surfing. It is, however a great beach to sit above in one of the restaurants and watch the ocean, birds and the folks.

There are some gorgeous beaches just 10 km north of ton, however to get to them you have to take what, in the rainy season, must be one of the worst roads in central america.  Once, we took a 4wd gypsy taxi and that was fine.  The next time it was in one of those old army transpor trucks that you see in safari documentaries.  I think I still have a few bruises from that one.

On the beach with Nick and Helyn

Spent the days there swimming, hiking up to the old lighthouse on the point, drinking and eating.  And oh yeah, I tried my hand at surfing.  I did manage to get up, kinda, but i´m not sure its my things.  I´ll always go for the cheaper and more reliable ride of body surfing. It was fun though and was a good way to add more bruises.

 

More wildlife, giant goats!

Surfing Playa Madera

After a few days in SJDS it was time to say adios to Nick and Helyn and head inland to the La Isla de Ometepe with is a an island in the middle of Lake Nicaragua with 2 volcanoes on it, only one of which is active.  That was one hell of a long travel day.  Bus to Rivas, Taxi to San Jorge, ferry to San Juan (Ometepe) , a bus ride to the crossroads followed by an hour and a half wait for the next bus to reach our hostel an hour after dusk.  At this point I was traveling with Bhris and Becky, a Canadian and Brit, who are doing a year´s worth of travel in 6 months.  I´m exhausted just thinking about it.

A parade in honor of ¨Santo Domingo¨or the god who became Santo Domingo after the conquest. This parade delayed our journey a bit but was pretty cool.

We stayed at a place called Hacienda Madera.  This place is deeply in the middle of nowhere.  I heard it was actually a Samoza family retreat back before the revolution...which brings me to Commandante.   There we were just having dinner when someone notices an odd older nica gentleman hanging out eating as well.  He stuck around all evening and after I got cleaned up and was ready for a few cocktails I ended up sitting and chatting with him (and a few yoouuungg americans) .  Turns out Carlos is a sandinista commandante in the army.  The government sent him (with a company of soldiers, natch) to Ometepe to watch for election related problems in the town of Altagarcia.  

Quick diversion into politics:  Daniel Ortega, who you may remember from such times as the 80s and the Iran-Contra affair, returned to power a couple of years ago after receiving 37ish% of the bote after his main opponent died on the campaign trail.  2 Sundays ago, Nicaragua held its regional elections for governors and mayors.  Turns out, surprise, there was fraud.  Now I´m not going to judge who committed the most, but the Sandinistas did a better job of it and won handily.  Since then, there have been sporadic protests in managua  and a bit in leon (a story for another post).  And back to the commandante....

OK, so here is Carlos, sent to a town 2 hours away from this hostel, pouring johnny walker black scotch for a bunch of gringo tourists.    He had the air of a soldier philosopher spouting off on the pilosophy of love and the state of politics in his country.  The philosophy, however, may have just been for the young girls, who he seemed to fancy.  He was definitely educated, having gone to school in the US (Cornell) and Cuba and the USSR.  He had been shot 3 times over the years and you could tell he was cautious.  Always checking out the room, to the point of being nervous about one of god´s most harmless creations, a middle aged Canadian.   Anyway quite an interesting evening, scotch with the commandante, served by his bodyguards.  Don´t know why he came there, but I guess he like the gringos.

Next day we went on a hike up the volcano, but I won´t talk about it because it sucked.

Vulcan Concepcion

Eventually, I left ometepe and headed back to Granada for a maintenance (shopping and stuff) day and a coupel of nights of getting hammered with australians and canadians and norwegians (oh my).   All good, clean, international fun.  

Getting drunk with the international set

Mas tarde....

Week 1 - Granada, Nicaragua

OK, so I´ve been here for 2 weeks now and I´m finally set up a blog for this little sojourn to the land of chickens, stray dogs and rice w/ beans. To kick things off I´ll do a couple of catchup posts. First the week in Granada, Sultan of Nicaragua and the oldest city in the region.

Got in late on sunday the day after the annual halloween party (thanks to all for the hangover!). The party was great fun and a success since i think i freaked a fair number of people out with family guy old pervert costume. Thanks to Andy and Nate for putting up with the dirty comments and a special thanks to Paul for being a good sport and being Chris to my Herbert.



Now onto much prettier things. Granada is a great town. Probably a few to many american expats, but hey, I was easing into another culture. Met some new friends on the way from the airport to Granada. Helyn and Nick are down here for a little vacation and language training before they move to France, don´t ask why spanish and france. Great couple and i spent the next week+ travelling with them a bit. Nick and I were in the same spanish school. I´m not sure it made my spanish that much beter, but it certainly helped me to be much more comfortable attempting to chat with people. Right now I feel like I have functional traveller´s spanish. Not great, but at least it is something. Tere, please don´t try to test me after a bottle of tequila in Oaxaca next month.

Anyway, so I spent the week in spanish school. Each day we had an afternoon activity. First was a little ceramic making town. Didn´t buy anything because you figure the first day of an 8 week trip is NOT the best time to buy something relatively heavy that will barely fit in your pack. Other days we went to a mariposa reserve on Mumbacho Volcano, which has been extinct for a 1000 years. The best one was a boat trip around Las Isletas in Lago de Nicaragua. Got really close to some monkeys while going around an island. There are bull sharks in the lake, but sorry Mike, I can´t find any proff that the sharks eat the monkey, but I bet they do. Sharks gotta eat.

Granada itself is beautiful. Old colonial architecture, lots of sidewalk cafes and best of all people who are really easy to talk to, welcoming and patient with my crappy language skills. They really want to chat with you and learn about you and have you learn about them. The best way, of course, is to talk to the homeless who will chat your ear off for the price of a hot dog (10 cordobas).

Anyway, here a few pictures:


Cathedral in Gradada

How many can you fit in a a tuk tuk (our answer, 8)

My spanish teacher Paola

Sunset over Lago de Nicaragua

And the one, you´ve been waiting for....

MONKEY!!!!